Well, a couple of weeks ago I finally bought a new machine and I installed XP with SP2 on it (the sound card doesn't work on Vista for some reason). Everything was working great until I got the Windows Update advice to install SP3, I put it to download and installed it with no problems. But a few days ago everything started to fail, first was Winamp, I reinstalled it and it got back to normal. The next one was 3ds max, no matter how many times I deleted it with all the files and reinstalled it, it won't work. Today WLM got screwed up. Also with the pass of the days all Windows turned really unstable, to the point of freezing up with no aparent reason. I started to think about any possible reason for this, but I didn't install anything important or rare since then, the machine is totally virus and spyware free, the only big thing I did is installing SP3. Can be the new service pack what screwed everything up? Anyone had the same issues there? If it keeps working like this I'll have to find out what's going on with the sound card and switch to Vista, this is really starting to freak me out... :banghead:
Sounds like the pc might be at fault. Not sure if it was new but if it was sold to you new with vista installed then the sound card should of been working anyway.
The PC is new (a 1.8 Intel Dual Core E2160 with 1GB of RAM working on a Biostar P4M890-M7 TE mobo) and it came with no OS installed, First I tried to install Vista on it but I had that trouble with the sound card. Maybe the mobo can be the trouble, since I have some weird troubles watching any kind of videos with the on-board video card too, I'll see what's going on and in the worst of the cases the mobo is still in warranty time...
*shudder* I just had the horrible image of a Chrono Trigger sequel staring Mario... Anyway, while there have been some software incompatibilities with SP3 (mainly point of sale systems), this sound more like a piece of hardware failing. First thing would be to rule out the hard drive and the RAM.
Well, everything says that is the motherboard what is causing the troubles, and the installation of SP3 was just a huge coincidence (the topic title does not make any sense now... ). I decided to make a deep test of the machine and like I have video and audio troubles in XP, Vista and an Ubuntu live CD, it seems clear enough for me that the mobo is the trouble here. By the way the RAM is 100% compatible with the motherboard, since I know lots of people with the same board and RAM cards and they have no troubles at all. I was going to the place I bought my computer this week anyway to buy a Geforce 7300GT anyway, so I'll take the computer there to switch the mobo if it's really what is not working well.
I used may RAM test programs and the RAM seems to be working well, but I'll download memtest and perform a test later anyway.
Best motherboards IMO are MSI and ASUS. Foxconn depends a lot of the model (if its base or pro) and Abit well, you can get an ASUS for the same price and its better. ASrock are decent considering the low price.
Gigabyte for the win. I rate Foxconn pretty high, most of the components on motehrbaords in general are Foxconn. If they were more available to me I'd put them in every system I build. ASrock are cheap ASUS correct? They had a win with the 939 boards they put out with a 940/AM2 adaptor.
I forgot to tell it, all the troubles got solved when I put a PCI-E graphics card, even the sound!! h: Now I'm working with Vista and everything is working perfectly. :icon_bigg Anyway, my budget was extremely low so all I could get was a GeForce 7200GS manufactured by Foxconn. But like it misteriously solved all the troubles I used to have I totally agree with you about the quality of this cards JaCkAz.
No, I was using the mobo's integrated graphics. I had a long story of troubles with S3 graphics on VIA chipsets, always getting solved with a new video card. As far as I know S3/VIA combos are way more troublesome than almost any other option available.
I see, too bad you didnt get one with X3100 Intel graphics, which are quite good considering the limitations.
It could have been a driver issue. Most likely it was, it could have been corrupted or SP3 might have had compatibility issues with the one you had installed.
